1. Field
The present invention relates to processing Internet Protocol (IP) transmissions in a communication system, and specifically to mapping a Network Access Identifier (NAI) to an IP address.
2. Background
With the proliferation of Internet-capable devices, both wireless and wireline devices, the number of addresses available for routing IP (Internet Protocol) transmissions is being depleted. As a result, in some regions users are no longer assigned a static IP address, but rather are dynamically assigned an IP address to accommodate the many users within a given system. The total number of IP addresses available is a function of the number of bits per address. One method for increasing the number of addresses is to increase the size of the IP address. Larger IP addresses, however, increase the loading and processing complexity of a system and increasing the address size requires a total upgrade of the entire IP network (Internet), incurring significant costs.
There is a need, therefore, for an efficient and accurate method of providing IP addresses for an ever increasing number of users, and for efficiently using the IP addresses available.